Brentford FC. Football club or property developer?
It's a huge conundrum.The club I have been a supporter of since 1963. All the years of faded glory, dashed aspirations, and almost success. But all the same, the club I follow and watch above all others.Anyone who follows Brentford knows Griffin Park is far from perfect, but the ground is known far more widely than ought to be by the proximity of the four pubs on each corner. Unique in world football.The ground is a firmly rooted site for fans and one of the season highlights for visiting fans.It's not Stamford Bridge, but it is arguably better than Craven Cottage.But now it's a dilemma. Is the club now a football club or a property developer?As a resident, like most around here, we tolerate the hustle and bustle of matchdays, the cars, the noise and the crowds. and in years gone by, the agro.But it is what keeps this long neglected town alive and vibrant and keeps alive it's industrial and social past. It's been here as long as most of the streets around it, and if you don't like it, well go live somewhere else, it wasn't imposed out of the blue like some of the other stuff appearing around hereIf Brentford FC have to move then I, as with most, am (or was) delighted that the new site is just a mile away and still in Brentford. Like the Watermans, move it out of it's spiritual home and it risks terminal decline.But all around this town are ill-designed and overblown luxury developments. Housing for the investors and the wealthy. Nothing of quality nor affordable. It is sprouting up and looming, almost surrounding the old town and bringing no benefits, just a long list of problems and burdens to the inhabitants and community of Brentford.The proposed development by the football club just adds to that and if granted will just give a green light to all the other developers who are queuing up to turn the riverside town into a hi-rise metropolis.It is flawed, badly flawed, and I suspect nothing more than a quick revision of the former site owners proposals which probably would not have got approved. For a medium to large stadium to have almost no parking is a recipe for failure. If fans were going to come to Brentford en masse by train they already would. South Ealing is a 5 to 10 min bus ride and a 15 min walk. Brentford just 5 mins away, 7 bus routes ranging from 30 seconds to 5 mins away as well.But most Championship and league One sides are not connected by these lines. Brentford and Gunnersbury are on Branch lines and not connected to the mainlines to the north, east and west of the country. Fans will still only come by car and coach.The complete lack of open space, health, education and all the other facilities to facilitate a harmonious and decent quality of life for inhabitants is totally devoid, not just in this scheme but in all the others. In fact, the whole place is already beyond breaking point and cannot deliver quality anything.Yet our elected councillors it seems, regardless of party colours cannot or will not make any sort of stand to accommodate this. In fact they are almost doing the opposite and letting things roll. How they can keep approving luxury developments and yet approve piddly little token projects under affordable of shared partnerships seems completely inconsistent or incompetent.These proposed developments are way too high,way too dense and too convoluted to be justify a benefit to simply the football club's well being. At the expense of the people of Brentford? The very same people who have been the backbone of the club to this very day?It is perplexing, I want the club to be successful, but primarily on the pitch. but not successful to the detriment of Brentford the town.
Anthony Waller ● 4780d5 Comments